Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock explains the process in identifying James Franklin as next coach

The coaching carousel is in full swing with the Virginia Tech Hokies making the first Power Four hire of the cycle. Bringing in former Penn State head coach James Franklin, Hokies athletic director Whit Babcock believes he’s found the coach who can rebuild a proud program.

At the introductory press conference for Franklin, Babcock addressed the hiring process. There, he’d break down what it was that the Virginia Tech search committee was looking for in the next head coach and how they were able to identify Franklin.

“When we started the committee,” Whit Babcock said. “One of the first things we started with was a list of traits we wanted to see in our next head coach. We went through the process of knowing that we wanted a proven, sitting head coach. There’s only 130-some of them in FBS football. There’s some that we didn’t feel were ready for the job. Others we felt were not movable. We started to narrow down that list together. We would talk about that and the committee would rank them, ask my advice from time to time, and then they would always take the time to sit and talk and rank candidates.”

At the start of the Virginia Tech search, James Franklin was still the sitting head coach at Penn State. At the time that previous head coach Brent Pry was fired, the Nittany Lions were still 3-0, coming off a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal, and were expected to make another deep run. He likely wasn’t on the table until about three weeks later, when Franklin would then be fired. Almost immediately, he’d make an appearance on College GameDay, making it clear Franklin wasn’t done coaching.

Virginia Tech’s search committee and Whit Babcock took notice. They also noticed that he met all the standards that they had set for their next head coach. So, he quickly became their top candidate.

“When Coach Franklin became available, we had a very brief conversation. The committee met on their own and voted 8-0 to make him the top candidate. So, that kind of set our mission right there. Then, we had a number of other strong candidates that will be fabulous coaches in their own right,” Babcock said. “But Coach Franklin met those traits. I just happen to have them right here [pulling a paper from his jacket pocket]. These are the traits that we started with and he checks all these boxes. Executive leadership, head coaching success, vision and drive to rebuild, modern program management in the NIL, Transfer Portal, and revenue share era, player development, communication and public engagement, recruiting excellence, staff building and management, cultural and institutional fit at Virginia Tech. I know I can speak for them [committee] on that. Nine out of nine. He scored 100 on that.”

That list of traits the program was looking for would prompt Franklin to add a quick joke. Saying, “It would have been helpful, Whit, if you had shared that list earlier in the process.” It probably would have too, though it certainly didn’t cost Franklin the job.

James Franklin now inherits a program he needs to rebuild. It’s a position he’s been in at other stops, rebuilding both Vanderbilt and Penn State in the past. However, he’ll be doing it for the first time as an ACC head coach.